One victim of the tax, grandmother Stephanie Bottrill, 53, of Solihull, took her own life blaming the Government in a note – and there are fears other despairing tenants may be driven to suicide.

Jack Dromey MP, shadow Communities and Local Government minister, said: ‘There are tens of thousands of beleaguered tenants who are sinking into despair because they can no longer live on meagre incomes slashed by the Bedroom Tax or they face being uprooted from their family home.

“Hard-pressed councils are now being forced to train their staff to be on suicide watch.

“The growing and tragic impact of this immoral tax shames the Government which is inflicting such pain on our country.”

Among the hardest hit is Birmingham City Council. In April alone it received 2,601 DHP ­applications, compared with 496 last year.

"As we feared, welfare reforms, in particular the Bedroom Tax, are having a devastating effect on many of the most vulnerable people in Birmingham.

“We’ve been given £3.77million to deal with this but the estimated reduction in housing benefits across the city, with ­respect to the Bedroom Tax alone, is over ­£11million. So there’s clearly a massive shortfall.”

A source at Hull City Council told the Sunday People they had received 679 DHP claims in the first five weeks – a four-fold increase.

North Lanarkshire council has seen a rise from 37 DHP ­applications between December 2011 and April 2012 to 1,451 in the month after the tax started.

A cap on the total benefits a household can get will start in July and experts say this will put even more of a strain on families.